Christmas Eve^2

Today's Lesson

All Periods: "What do I need to know to answer the question?"

The day before the Christmas break is one of those ordeals that reinforces the whole ed-school concept of a classrom "social contract, meaning that, if the kids don't want to work, no amount of screaming and yelling will make them do so. Sure, you'll get the 1 or 2 eager-to-please types to fall into line, but after a while, you realize you're doing more damage than good to your rep, especially when you have to deal with the same set of students the first Monday after the break.  

Anyway, that's how it started this morning. I hit the first group at the door with my demands and conditions and got merely adequate compliance as a result. I was a little more chill with the next group and got even better compliance, so there was the day's lesson on my end at least.

My last three classes are staffed with upperclassmen which means I was dealing with 4, 3 and then finally 2 students, one of whom got up to go to the bathroom and never returned. Rather than get pissed off or lose emotional steam, I used the time to catch up on my attendance and monitor the working students' activity. Long story short, out of the 7 kids too lazy to cut class, at least 6 got something decent (at least in terms of mathematics) out of the experience.

As for the 7th, I practically stepped on an overlooked dime bag of pot in my classroom doorway as I was heading out of my last class, so maybe he was in a rush to get out and get the holidays started. I contemplated stapling it up in the break room bulletin with a "open only in case of emergency" note attached, but figured that might be a dodgy move given the fact that kids are in and out of the break room as much as the teachers. Instead, I threw it on the boss's desk with a joking "Merry Christmas" and a quick explanation as to how it turned up.

"It'll be interesting to see who comes back to report it missing," the boss said.